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About Kimberly Hirsh

One of LEARN NC’s partners, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, risks losing its funding if the recently proposed state budget passes. NCCAT provides residential professional development seminars for new and experienced teachers at two campuses: one in Cullowhee and one in Ocracoke. Seminars last for five days and enable participants to have hands-on experiences that they can then apply to their work in the classroom, providing time for them to reflect individually and collectively in both formal settings such as workshops and informally over shared meals. Educators return to their classrooms energized and excited to put what they’ve learned into practice.

To support NCCAT and encourage legislators to continue to fund it, sign NCCAT’s petition or visit Who Represents Me? at the NC General Assembly website to find contact information for your legislators.

The planning committee of the 19th National Health Equity Research Webcast is excited to invite educators to join us for this year’s webcast titled “Early Childhood Development: Investing in Our Children and Our Future.”

For many children born into poverty, the skills they need to succeed develop more slowly than for other children. This developmental gap begins as early as 6 months of age and widens across early childhood. By the time poor children enter kindergarten, they have a second strike against them that we know as the achievement gap. Because the basic brain architecture develops before kindergarten, we know that children who get a poor start in life are likely to experience a third strike as adults: the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness gap.

Early childhood development has significant implications for education and for health and we hope to have a rich conversation with researchers and practitioners representing all fields who are interested in the optimal development of our children.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Minority Health Project will present the live, interactive broadcast via Internet webcast from the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditiorium at the UNC School of Social Work on June 4, at 1:30 pm EDT.

Panelists include Sara Kastelic, Deputy Director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association; Portia Kennel, Senior Vice President of Program Innovation for the Ounce of Prevention Fund and Executive Director of the Educare Learning Network; and Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, Director of the Office of Head Start. Khari Garvin, Director of the NC Head Start-State Collaboration Office, will moderate.

For more information and to register to view the webcast from a personal computer or as an organization in a group viewing, visit the webcast’s website.

North Carolina students in the 4th through 8th grades can free their imaginations and ask questions about Blackbeard and the wreck of his flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), during a live online stream from the Watercraft Center at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort on Friday, May 31, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. They’ll learn how researchers retrieve artifacts from the ocean floor or clean crusty cannon balls after nearly 300 years with project archaeologists and conservators.

This event is a kickoff for the Queen Anne’s Revenge‘s 2013 spring dive. Project divers will also be at the dock to demonstrate the recovery process. The joy of science and history together will be the highlight of the day through demonstrations, presentations and interactive questions from the students and answers from the experts. Schools must register by sending an email to qar@ncdcr.gov with the school’s name and contact information for the teacher(s) participating.

To spur interest, a statewide touring exhibition of artifacts from the shipwreck and interactive displays will open at the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources Western office in Asheville on May 31 through July 13 before the exhibit moves on to the N.C. Transportation Museum until August 31, Historic Edenton until October 19 and the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum until December 7. Additional locations are planned in 2014.

Since exploration of the shipwreck began in 1997, approximately 280,000 artifacts have been recovered, including cannons, anchors, grenades, platters, shackles, gold dust, syringes, and much more. Students can ask about the excavation process, work environment and all about Blackbeard and pirates! Teachers and students may send their questions to qar@ncdcr.gov or submit them online at http://www.qaronline.org/ask.

The QAR ran aground near Beaufort in 1718. The QAR wreck was located in November 1996 by Intersal, Inc., with information provided to Operations Director Mike Daniel by company president Phil Masters. Archaeologists with the Underwater Archaeology Branch in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources lead the research on this shipwreck.

This spring’s dive will culminate in the recovery of several cannons and other artifacts from the shipwreck. There will be two excavations this summer, and full recovery of artifacts is planned for 2014.

For additional information call (919) 807-7389. The Underwater Archaeology Branch and N.C.Maritime Museum are within the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. For more on QAR, see http://www.qaronline.org/

Due to security updates to the LEARN NC website and online courses, there will be a brief service outage on Thursday, April 11, 2013 beginning at 5 pm EDT. At this time, you may experience reduced performance on the LEARN NC website or online courses or be unable to access them. The outage is expected to last no more than one hour.

From Bryson City to Nags Head and every region in between, this year’s North Carolina Science Festival will feature a full slate of events designed to celebrate science and to engage and inspire public audiences of all ages. This year’s festival, which runs through much of the month of April, is bigger and better than ever, with hundreds of events already planned and more being added all the time. You can check out the full list at the festival’s website, http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/, but you might want to pay particular attention to the events below, which are “can’t-miss” for educators.

Special Teacher Training Workshop at the Carolina Raptor CenterFriday, April 5 at 10:00am in Huntersville; $50 per participant
A half-day of science instruction with a focus on ecology, habitats, and ecosystems. Teachers will receive instructions and participate in hands-on science activities that can be used in their classrooms. Lesson plans and support materials will be provided in a notebook to each participant. Includes a preview of the Raptor Center’s new hands-on raptor anatomy program, focused on the biological makeup of a raptor’s body.

From the Inside Out: A Day of Dissections at Discovery PlaceSunday, April 7 at 12:00 pm in Charlotte; free with museum admission
Want to get some practice before leading a dissection with your students? This event, which takes place from noon to 5:00pm, will include dissections of sharks, frogs, and fetal pigs.

Stop-Motion AnimationThursday, April 11 at 6:00pm in Fayetteville; freeTuesday, April 16 at 3:30pm in Hope Mills; free
If you are looking for a new way for students to demonstrate their understanding of scientific concepts, consider having them create stop-motion animations! There are several software and hardware options out there for creating this type of product; these events will demonstrate one possibility available at local public libraries – the ReadyANIMATOR.

Hacker Friday: Making Cool Stuff with TechnologyFriday, April 12 at 7:00pm in Charlotte; free
If you are tired of doing the same old things with technology in your classroom, come check out the Maker Movement at Hackerspace, Charlotte’s only open community lab that incorporates elements of a machine shop, workshop, classroom, and studio. While you’re there, you can demo, build, and play with a variety of technology including compressed air rockets, 3D printers, RC cars, and computer security.

Scope Academy at NC State UniversitySaturday, April 13 at 9:00am in Raleigh; free admission ($10 for BBQ lunch)
Explore some of today’s most thought-provoking topics in chemistry, physics, math, statistics, and earth-system sciences. Enjoy classroom sessions led by NC State’s world-class faculty, followed by a keynote address by Robert Califf, MD, vice chancellor of clinical and translational research, director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI), and professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Duke University Medical Center. This event should be an excellent opportunity for educators to hear about current scientific research in an approachable way that can be translated into K-12 classrooms.

SYNERGY 2013 Afterschool Professional Development ConferenceApril 15-17 in Raleigh; $160 per participant; CEU credit available
Hosted by the North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs, this three-day conference will focus on increasing access to high-quality STEM-based afterschool programs throughout our state. The program will include stellar STEM speakers and workshop presenters who will share their expertise and experience with afterschool providers and educators.

Critical Thinking: How to Use Science to Take Nonsense Out of Common SenseTuesday, April 16, 6:00pm in Boone; free admission
What does it mean to think like a scientist? In this event, a speaker will explain the major aspects of the critical-thinking process and how they can be used to evaluate research findings using examples from the media. Developing students’ critical thinking skills can be a challenge in any subject, but especially in science where students often think there is only one “right answer.” This even should give educators great ideas for how to foster critical thinking in their students!

North Carolina Science Festival is a two-week-long, 500-mile-wide celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Across the state, North Carolinians participate in science talks, lab tours, nature experiences, exhibits, performances, and other activities, hosted by all kinds of community organizations – schools, colleges, and universities, parks, libraries, museums, and businesses.

NCSF was founded in 2010 by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and is the first statewide science festival in the U.S. Morehead continues to produce the Festival in partnership with many sponsors and event hosts. The 2013 Festival is scheduled for April 5-21, and Time Warner Cable is the 2013 Festival Champion.

Casey Rawson is currently a doctoral student in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned an MSLS in 2011. She also holds an MAT in middle grades education from the University of Louisville and is a former 6th- and 7th-grade science teacher. Her research interests focus on how school librarians can collaborate effectively with teachers in STEM content areas. She has also worked on projects related to diversity in young adult literature, the literacy needs of African American male youth, portrayals of scientists in children’s picture books, and gender schemas and IT career choices.

This post includes the slides and links from our networking session, “The 21st Century Library Media Program and the New North Carolina School Library Media Coordinators Standards.”

Session description:

In April 2012, the State Board of Education approved a new set of professional standards for North Carolina’s School Library Media Coordinators (SLMCs). In September 2012, the Board approved a draft Evaluation Rubric for these standards. This rubric will be piloted in the 2012-2013 school year and should be ready for wide scale training and also will be used during the 2013-2014 academic year. In this session, discuss what SLMCs can do to prepare for the new evaluation instrument and learn how LEARN NC’s resources can help you make the transition to these new standards.

Standard 1: School Library Media Coordinators demonstrate leadership.

Professional Learning Communities

Building and maintaining an online professional learning communities Many schools have moved away from one-time workshops and toward the more sustained approach of professional learning communities. But finding the time for all PLC members to collaborate can be difficult. This article offers suggestions for using online tools to make PLCs run more smoothly and effectively.

Moodle Training LEARN NC’s three-week Moodle Training introduces you to the basics of managing a course online, from uploading assignments to grading tests to having online discussions via Moodle’s interactive message board (Complete the LEARN NC Moodle Training course and then utilize the LEARN NC Moodle to run your own online PLC for free!)

Copyright

Copyright: A Primer Includes most of the text of our reference articles on copyright and fair use, plus a section on Creative Commons. Topics covered include copyright law, limitations and exceptions to copyright

Fair Use Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose such as commentary, criticism, or parody. “Fair” uses do not require permission from the copyright owner. This article explains fair use, particularly with respect to education.

Standard 2: School library media coordinators build a learning environment that meets the instructional needs of a diverse population of students.

Bridging Spanish language barriers in Southern schools These articles from faculty and graduate students of UNC’s School of Education provide background on Latino immigrants in North Carolina, administrative challenges in binational education, and strategies through which teachers can build on what Latino students bring to their classrooms to create a learning environment that meets the needs of all students.

North Carolina History: A Digital Textbook Designed for grades 8 and up, this textbook covers North Carolina history from the arrival of the first peoples to the present day. It uses primary sources to tell the story of North Carolina. It uses an inquiry-based approach to learning.

Instructify Instructify is back! Instructify is where teachers can stock their toolboxes with practical, time-saving classroom ideas and cutting edge methods of instruction. It’s where to find useful, free technology to utilize in the classroom. And it’s a fun place to spend your planning period.

Math Common Core resources This edition contains resources for teachers, administrators, and parents to learn more about the implementation of the Common Core Mathematics Standards.

Standard 5: School Library Media Coordinators reflect on their practice.

An introduction to teacher research Every day, teachers develop lesson plans, evaluate student work, and share outcomes with students, parents, and administrators. Teacher research is simply a more intentional and systematic version of what good teachers already do. This article explains the basic process of teacher research, including formulation of a research question, data collection and analysis, and writing up your findings.

Greetings from LEARN NC! Many of you are already on your winter break. When you return, remember that LEARN NC has a host of resources for your teaching needs. Don’t forget you can always keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest LEARN NC news!

Recently publishedFrom social drinking to dependence
In this lesson for high school healthful living, students categorize behaviors into social drinking, problem drinking, and alcoholism. They then discuss the signs of early and late stage alcoholism.

Enroll now for LEARN NC’s spring semester online courses!
The spring schedule of LEARN NC’s online professional development courses is ready for enrollment! We are offering courses for our Carolina On-line Teacher (COLT) program, as well as Moodle training, content-area courses, and courses designed to help teachers work with special populations. As always, each course was created using a researched model of effective professional development and the online format allows participants to work at a time and place most convenient to them. All courses are aligned to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards.

Listen with LEARN NC
Did you know that there’s a LEARN NC podcast? Each week we share information about how to use our site, our ongoing projects, and special events in the North Carolina educational community. Listen to the latest podcast by downloading it from iTunes U and subscribe so that you’ll never miss an installment. Popular episodes include our exploration of Digital Textbooks and our coverage of the Center for Mathematics Education of Latinos conference, parts one and two.

Keep in touch
To keep up with all of LEARN NC’s exciting work, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We’ll keep you updated on our projects, share exciting news and trends in education, and give you the opportunity to participate in our Weekly Trivia Contest! Winners will be entered into a drawing to receive a free online professional development course.

Do you know someone who would enjoy receiving our newsletters? If so, please encourage them to subscribe!

Happy holidays!
We here at LEARN NC wish you happy holidays and a restful break. Our offices will be closed December 22 through January 1. We’ll be back with more great resources and professional development in the new year!

Greetings from LEARN NC! It’s almost time for Thanksgiving! As the days get shorter, remember to turn to LEARN NC for time-saving resources. Don’t forget you can always keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest LEARN NC news!

Teaching about Thanksgiving
Thinking about Thanksgiving? We’ve published a few resources that will help you! Check out our Mini Page lesson. In this lesson, students will use a Mini Page about the first Thanksgiving to make an interactive book for the class. Or check out our Teaching Thanksgiving lessons, resources and activities to help you bring historical accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and a broader context to discussions about the quintessentially American holiday.

Just published: A smoke-free me
According to American Cancer Society, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US. Almost 43.8 million Americans still smoke cigarettes — nearly 1 in every 5 adults. To help address the epidemic and to observe The Great American Smokeout, Learn NC has published A Smoke-Free Me. In this lesson, students will use the “A Smoke-Free Me” Mini Page to learn about how the heart and lungs work, smoking regulations in their state, and the harmful effects of smoking. Students will create an anti-smoking poster using their new knowledge.

The Walking Classroom
Learn NC has partnered with The Walking Classroom Institute to provide you a sampler of podcasts and lessons from the The Walking Classroom. The Walking Classroom is an award-winning, nationally recognized, in-school fitness initiative and obesity intervention that improves health literacy and builds core content knowledge while addressing different learning styles. The method is quite simple: Students take brisk 20-minute walks (preferably outside) while listening to specially written and recorded content which is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Detailed lesson plans contain defined objectives, discussion questions, and comprehension quizzes for each educational podcast, so that when students return from their walk, the content can be effectively reviewed and synthesized. LEARN NC’s The Walking Classroom sampler includes ten podcasts with accompanying lesson plans and quizzes.

Common Core and NC Essential Standards support
We’ve published a guide to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics for elementary school. This guide provides resources for teachers, administrators, and parents to help them understand the content and intent of the standards, their impact on teaching and learning, and how students will be assessed on these standards. The guide explains the importance of Critical Areas to the Standards and includes an interactive graphic showing the relationship between the Critical Areas and the Domains across grades K-5.

Do you need resources for implementing the new Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards? You can browse the standards on our website. To find lesson plans and other resources aligned to a particular standard, click the “Find aligned resources” link under the text of the standard.

November professional development: The European Union – An Introduction for Teachers
The goal of this course is to introduce in-service teachers to the history and the function of the European Union, as well as to digital resources and methods for student learning. By the end of the course, teachers will understand the EU as an essential part of European history, government, economics, and culture, and will be able to facilitate learning about the EU through use of technology. The final project is a standards-based technology-rich lesson plan incorporating online EU resources for each teacher’s class. Lesson plans will be submitted to the UNC European Union Center of Excellence for possible inclusion in the online lesson plan database. Go to https://ncelearning.org/course?courseid=108 to register.

This month’s Twitter chat: November 27
Join us for our monthly twitter chat on Tuesday, November 27 from 7 to 8 pm, hosted by LEARN NC graduate assistant Danielle Parker. You can follow the conversation with the hashtag #learnchat. This month’s chat will give our followers a chance to learn more about all that LEARN NC has to offer!

Listen with LEARN NC
Did you know that there’s a LEARN NC podcast? Each week we share information about how to use our site, our ongoing projects, and special events in the North Carolina educational community. Listen to the latest podcast by downloading it from iTunes U and subscribe so that you’ll never miss an installment.

Keep in touch
To keep up with all of LEARN NC’s exciting work, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We’ll keep you updated on our projects, share exciting news and trends in education, and give you the opportunity to participate in our Weekly Trivia Contest! Winners will be entered into a drawing to receive a free online professional development course.

LEARN NC has partnered with The Walking Classroom program, an in-school obesity intervention that promotes health literacy and develops and supports lifelong fitness habits for all students while addressing different learning styles.

LEARN NC and The Walking Classroom have published a sampler of 10 podcasts, along with standards-aligned accompanying lesson plans. The podcasts address a variety of topics including narrative poetry, famous scientists, and social justice movements.

“We are thrilled to work with LEARN NC,” said Laura Fenn, co-founder and executive director of The Walking Classroom Institute. “With the free podcast and lesson plan downloads available on the LEARN NC site, teachers will be able to test drive the program and see if The Walking Classroom suits their needs and the needs of their students.”

Fenn added, “Getting fresh air and physical activity while learning benefits everyone, but for some students with non-traditional learning styles, participating in The Walking Classroom provides the opportunity to learn in a way that is most effective for them.”

The Walking Classroom Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health and education of all students. The Walking Classroom program is an in-school obesity intervention that promotes health literacy and develops and supports lifelong fitness habits for all students while addressing different learning styles. The method combines standards-aligned academic content and exercise during the regular school day. For more information, visit www.thewalkingclassroom.org.

Greetings from LEARN NC! Happy Fall! We hope you are taking time to enjoy the beautiful leaves, carving pumpkins, and eating yummy treats! The school year is flying by and we have the resources you need to keep things moving along. Don’t forget you can always keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest LEARN NC news!

LEARN NC’s 2012 election guide
The presidential election is less than two weeks away, and LEARN NC has the resources you need to bring this important event into your classroom with our 2012 election guide. The guide includes information about national, state, and local elections. It provides an extensive list of online resources describing candidates and parties, campaign issues, and election law. Lesson plans and activities address topics such as satire, propaganda, the use of statistics, and the constitutional foundations of the electoral process. If you know of any valuable resources we should add, email Kimberly Hirsh, Managing Editor.

School of Education hosts conversation about education in the presidential election
LEARN NC has partnered with the UNC School of Education to host the brown bag event, “Our Generation, Our Nation, Our Education, Our Conversation” on October 30, 2012 at 12 pm in 206 Peabody Hall on UNC’s campus. This event is free and open to the public. To register for the event, visit http://tinyurl.com/9tnk9k7.

Common Core and NC Essential Standards support
Are you struggling to understand the Common Core? We’ve published a guide to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics for elementary school. This guide provides resources for teachers, administrators, and parents to help them understand the content and intent of the standards, their impact on teaching and learning, and how students will be assessed on these standards. The guide explains the importance of Critical Areas to the Standards and includes an interactive graphic showing the relationship between the Critical Areas and the Domains across grades K-5.

Do you need resources for implementing the new Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards? You can browse the standards on our website. To find lesson plans and other resources aligned to a particular standard, click the “Find aligned resources” link under the text of the standard.

Coming soon: The Walking Classroom
The Walking Classroom is an award-winning, nationally recognized, in-school fitness initiative and obesity intervention that improves health literacy and builds core content knowledge while addressing different learning styles. The method is quite simple: Students take brisk 20-minute walks (preferably outside) while listening to specially written and recorded content which is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Detailed lesson plans contain defined objectives, discussion questions, and comprehension quizzes for each educational podcast, so that when students return from their walk, the content can be effectively reviewed and synthesized. LEARN NC will publish a sampler of ten podcasts with their accompanying lesson plans and quizzes. Stay tuned for the announcement when the sampler is published! For more information, visit The Walking Classroom’s website.

Fall online professional development still open
LEARN NC’s fall online professional development courses are still accepting new enrollments. We are offering courses for our Carolina On-line Teacher (COLT) program as well as Moodle training, content-area courses, and courses designed to help teachers work with special populations. As always, each course was created using a researched model of effective professional development and the online format allows participants to work at a time and place most convenient to them. All courses are aligned to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards.

This month’s Twitter chat: Juan Carillo & Mexican-Origin Scholarship BoysLEARN NC (@LearnNC) will host our second monthly Twitter chat on October 29, from 4-5pm. Professor Juan Carrillo (@CarrilloJFC) will lead the conversation. The chat will focus on his work Portraits of Mexican-Origin Scholarship Boys and “making-it,” intellectual masculinities, the gender gap in education, and the strategies used by Latino “ghetto nerds” to succeed academically all while affirming a hybrid cultural identity. Join the chat by using the hashtag #learnchat.

Listen with LEARN NC
Did you know that there’s a LEARN NC podcast? Each week we share information about how to use our site, our ongoing projects, and special events in the North Carolina educational community. Listen to the latest podcast by downloading it from iTunes U and subscribe so that you’ll never miss an installment.

Keep in touch
To keep up with all of LEARN NC’s exciting work, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We’ll keep you updated on our projects, share exciting news and trends in education, and give you the opportunity to participate in our Weekly Trivia Contest! Winners will be entered into a drawing to receive a free online professional development course.